FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-14

In Jesus Only

Looking back at the last part of verse 3, Paul tells us that the spiritual blessings given by God are “in Christ,” which literally means, “in Jesus alone.” In past lessons I have often expounded in the importance of the phrases “in Christ,” and, “in Him,” or their equivalents, pointing out that they occur, in all, about 164 times in Paul’s writings. At times this may seem a difficult idea, but there is hardly a more important concept in the New Testament, since it is only by means of our union with Christ that any of these great spiritual blessings come to us. Even our election is in Christ, for God “chose us in him before the creation of the world.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it well:

“If you leave out the ‘in Christ,’ you will never have any blessings at all. . . . Every blessing we enjoy as Christian people comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. God has blessings for all sorts and conditions of men. For instance, the Sermon on the Mount gives our Lord’s teaching that God ‘maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good’ (Matthew 5:45 KJV). There are certain common general blessings which are enjoyed by the whole of humanity. There is what is called ‘common grace,’ but that is not what the apostle is dealing with here. Here he is dealing with particular grace, with special grace, the blessings that are enjoyed by Christian people only. The evil as well as the good, the unjust as well as the just, enjoy common blessings, but none but Christians enjoy these special blessings. People often stumble at this truth, but the distinction is drawn very clearly in the Scriptures. The ungodly may enjoy much good in this world, and their blessings come to them from God in a general way, but they know nothing of the blessings mentioned in this verse. Paul is writing here to Christian people, and his concern is that they should understand and grasp the special blessings and privileges possible to them as Christians; and so he emphasizes that all those blessings come in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and in and through him alone. You cannot be a Christian without being ‘in Christ.’ Christ is the beginning as well as the end. He is Alpha as well as Omega. There are no blessings for Christians apart from him.”³

What does anyone have apart from Jesus Christ? Paul answers just a chapter further on in this letter: “At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12).

What is the situation when we are “in” Him? We have “every spiritual blessing” and so praise God the Father, as Paul himself does, exuberantly. We will ask for our daily bread here, and other things besides. But if we suffer want here, in the final analysis it will be all right, because we still possess every spiritual blessing “in the heavenly places.”

John Calvin also summed it up very wisely:

“Whatever happens to us, let us always assure ourselves that we have good cause to praise our God, and that even if we are poor and miserable in this world, the happiness of heaven is enough to appease us, to sweeten all our afflictions and sorrows, and to give us such contentment that we may nevertheless have our mouths open to bless God for showing himself so kindhearted and liberal towards us as even to adopt us as his children, and to show us that the heritage which has been purchased for us by the blood of his only Son is ready for us, and that we cannot miss it, seeing that we go to it with true and invincible constancy of faith.”⁴

Adapted and modified excerpts from James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary
³ D. M. Lloyd-Jones, God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1:1 to 23 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979)
⁴ John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians (1562; reprint, Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Where noted, Scripture taken from King James Version, KJV, Public Domain.

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-14

All Spiritual Blessings – Continued

The revelation of God’s purpose in history. Now Paul reaches the greatest heights of wonderment and rapture when he speaks of God’s great purpose in history, namely, to “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.” Paul lived in a very broken world, just as we do today. He saw Greek pitted against Roman, Jew against Gentile, rich against poor, aristocrat against commoner. He saw people struggling for themselves and, above all, struggling against God. “Is this to go on forever?” he might have asked. Fortunately, Paul knew the answer to that question. The disharmony of the world is not to go on forever, for the same God who has predestined us to salvation in Jesus Christ has also predestined all things to be brought together in submission to Him.

Paul wrote to the Philippians: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Sealing by the Holy Spirit. Seals authenticate documents and declare that the promises contained in them are good. This is what the Holy Spirit does for Christians. So when Paul says, “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,” he is saying that God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is an authentication that believers are truly God’s and that none of the promises God has made to them will fail.

An inheritance. The Holy Spirit, though a seal on a document, so to speak, is actually more than certification of God’s promises. He is Himself a portion of our inheritance. Paul speaks of this when he terms the Holy Spirit, “the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” I love the way the New International Version expresses this same principle: “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (NIV). This, to me, is a great turn of phrase. According to this verse, Christians are God’s inheritance. But the Holy Spirit, who is God, in essence, has been given to us as a down payment on the fullness of the inheritance which is already ours in Jesus Christ!

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-14

All Spiritual Blessings – Continued

Adoption. The second spiritual blessing in Christ is adoption, for in love He “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” Adoption means becoming God’s sons and daughters with all the privileges implied. On this basis we are said to be “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) and have the privilege of bringing all things to God in prayer and of being heard by him.

Redemption. Redemption means being delivered from the slavery of sin by the death of Christ, which Paul indicates by saying: “In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood.” In antiquity a person could become a slave in one of three ways. He could be born a slave; children of slaves were automatically slaves too. He could become a slave by conquest; the citizens of a city or nation captured by another city or nation would be enslaved. He could become a slave through debt; a person who could not pay a debt could be enslaved as the last possible resource for payment.

Significantly, the Bible speaks of people being slaves of sin in each of these ways. We are born in sin, receiving a sinful nature from our parents: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). We are conquered by sin: “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psalm 19:13). We are also slaves of sin through debt: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Redemption means Jesus delivering us from this slavery to sin by His work on the cross. Before, we were held captive and could not break free to do God’s bidding. We did not even want to. Now we are freed to serve God by Jesus’ death. As Peter writes, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Forgiveness of sins. Paul links forgiveness of sins to redemption, writing, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” But although they are closely linked, forgiveness of sins is something different from redemption. Redemption means being freed from sin’s power, so that it no longer rules over us. Forgiveness means having God wipe the slate clean, thus leading to redemption. The Bible seems to go out of its way to magnify the wonder of this forgiveness. David wrote, God “forgives all your iniquities” (Psalm 103:3). Jeremiah quotes God as saying, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). John declared, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-14

All Spiritual Blessings

I pointed out previously that in the Greek, verses 3-14 is one sentence. But it is appropriate that some more modern versions (such as the New International Version) make verse 3 a sentence to itself. It states a theme and highlights what is to come. The verse says God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (NIV), and thus praises Him for it.

What are we to make of the word “spiritual” in this sentence? The word could mean either of two things. It could mean that the blessings come to us by means of the Holy Spirit. The last verses of this section (verses 11-14) certainly teach that. Or it could mean that these are spiritual rather than material blessings. The phrase “in the heavenly places” which also occurs in this sentence, suggests that Paul is probably thinking of “spiritual” in the second sense. In the context of the verse, it stands to reason that he is thinking of blessings related to heaven rather than earth and is declaring that these blessings are freely given to us.

It is not that God does not give material blessings as well because He truly does. Jesus promised that his disciples would be provided with all things needful (see Matthew 6:25-34). The apostle Paul said, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). But these material provisions are relatively unimportant when measured against the promised spiritual riches. Besides, although in this life we may have more or less material possessions, in spiritual terms we don’t merely have some blessings, but rather, all blessings in Christ.

Verses 4-14 showcase a listing of these blessings. It is worth looking ahead to the entire scope of them now in light of the “spiritual blessing” found spoken of in verse 3.

Election. Paul says that “He [God] chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” This troubles some people, because they suppose that if God elects individuals to salvation, as this verse and others clearly declare He does, then the value of human choices is destroyed and the motivation for a holy life vanishes. This is not what happens. Instead of destroying the value of human choices, election gives us a capacity for choosing that we did not possess previously as unregenerate persons.

Before we were made alive in Christ we had a human will. But it was directed against God, not toward Him. We could choose, but we always chose wrongly. When we were made alive in Christ we received a new nature, according to which God, who before was undesirable to us, now became desirable, and we willingly submitted ourselves to Him. Again, so far as living a holy life is concerned, we are told in another text that God wills our holiness. So, far from being an excuse for unholiness, election actually guarantees the opposite. The only way we can know whether we are among the elect ultimately is whether we are living a holy life.

Election teaches that “Salvation is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). Indeed, Paul makes this clear in this passage. He teaches that God:

“chose” (verse 4),
“predestined” (verse 5),
“accepted” (verse 6),
“forgave” (verse 7),
“grace abounded” (verse 7-8),
“made known His will” (verse 9),
“purposed” (verse 9),
“sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (verse 13).

It is God’s work from beginning to end.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:3-14

Most services in our mainstream churches have several things in common, most all are important. In no particular order, they can be: the sermon, Scripture readings, hymns and worship songs, prayers, offering, as well as the other parts of a familiar service. As I have reflected on the worship of Christian people over a period of many decades, I have come to believe that one of the most important aspects of all the various parts of worship is the congregational singing, whether classic hymns or more modern praise songs. Why? Because it is in singing that the congregation itself actively voices praise to God and they do so in unity. Singing has the power to draw a person’s mind to a focused point, for the most part.

Please don’t get me wrong, singing in worship is only one of the more important parts, but it is, a very important part. The praise opens up the heart and spirit for the sermon, the Word of God, which importance cannot be over emphasized. We learn from the Word of truth. But the teaching of truth, if it is rightly understood, leads wholly back to praise. Worship through praise comes full circle. If we discover who God is through His Word and what He has done for us, we will praise Him.

Praise to the Father

Paul must have understood this well, for most of his letters begin early on with a hymn of praise (and prayer) to God. We all know that Paul’s letters tend to divide into two sections: teaching and application or, as we could also say, faith and life. Doctrine is followed by duty. But usually, long before he gets to the duty section, Paul revels in what God has done for us by praising Him. Romans reviews basic doctrine and praises God for it. Second Corinthians is another example. The same thing occurs in Galatians (briefly), Philippians, Colossians, and other letters. Of all these letters, none is so overflowing with this initial praise to God for His great blessings as Ephesians.

This is a remarkable section of Paul’s letter. To begin with, it is all one sentence, from verse 3 to verse 14. English translations generally break the words up for ease of reading, but in the Greek Paul simply begins with a note of praise to God for “every spiritual blessing” and then keeps going, adding phrase upon phrase and doctrine upon doctrine, as he lists these benefits.

But it is not just a great panorama of color and movement that we are confronted with in these verses. We also meet with a vast display of doctrines. In fact, they are interconnected, which sometimes makes it hard to analyze the paragraph.

John R. W. Stott, the British commentator states:

“This is a magnificent gateway, a golden chain of many links, and, a kaleidoscope of dazzling lights and shifting colors” to the epistle.” He also provides a temporal outline . . . the past blessing of election (verses 4-6), the present blessing of adoption (verses 5-8), and the future blessing of unification (verses 9-10), followed by a section on the “scope” of these blessings.¹

The commentator E. K. Simpson lists the blessings:

“election, adoption, redemption, forgiveness of sins, wisdom and understanding, the unification of things in Christ, and the seal of the Holy Spirit.”²

Probably, to many, the Trinitarian framework is most helpful. Paul is saying that the blessings listed come from God the Father, become ours in Jesus Christ, and are applied by the Holy Spirit. We notice, for example, that God the Father is the subject of nearly every verb in the section, and that the phrase “in Christ” or “in Him” occurs throughout.

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary
¹ John R. W. Stott, God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1979)
² E. K. Simpson, “Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians” in E. K. Simpson and F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.